Advice to Romney: 'Suit Up and Get Serious'

Peggy Noonan has some advice for Mitt Romney in her latest Wall Street Journal column: He will be the nominee, so it's time to "suit up and get serious," she writes. "Get off the goofball express. Cheesy grits, jeans, singing, being compulsively pleasant, calling your opponents lightweights—enough." Most importantly, Romney needs to "dig down deep" and answer genuinely that all-important question: Why do you want to be president? Voters, he should remember, can spot the difference between "ego-driven" and "purpose-driven."

"When a candidate says, not blatantly but between the lines, 'I want to be president because I'm an extraordinary and superior human and want you to see me that way too,' well, that sort of subliminally gives a lot of people the creeps," writes Noonan. That's how Romney is coming off—she thinks Obama is guilty of the same—and this year especially it won't fly. As for the Etch a Sketch gaffe, it's "not fatal," she adds. This election will be about the economy, and therefore "Romney should feel optimistic." Click for the full column. (More Mitt Romney 2012 stories.)